2018 Nicolas E. Davies Enterprise Award of Excellence

Case Study: Census Reporting And

Clinical Pathway Management To Improve Capacity And Optimize

Patient Care

Dawn Williams

Manager, Patient Access Services

Kelli Nelson

Director, Clinical Applications

Part I: Census Reporting

Dawn Williams

Manager, Patient Access Services

Census Reporting Problem Background

 PAS tasked with bed management for more than 18,500 orthopedic

inpatient surgeries annually

 Requires close monitoring of bed utilization to accommodate patient

volume

 Hospital bed census communicated to HSS leadership and

operational owners four times per day

 Manual data collection process presented significant operational

challenges

‒ Multiple telephone touchpoints with nursing units throughout the day

‒ Data often based on subjective estimates

‒ Minimal ability to cross-train due to process complexity, resulting in staffing

challenges

 After the implementation of our EHR, operational & IT leadership

looked for a way to leverage new technology to transform the bed

planning process

• Inadequate reporting tools

‒ No real time monitoring

‒ No ability to reliably track patient throughput

• Critical billing related notes lost after discharge

• Limited visibility of patient’s admission details

• Existing platform wasn’t user friendly, requiring a lot of manual

clicks

• Inability to use indicators or communicate updates to other users

‒ Resulted in repeated calls/email among staff members

‒ Often resulted in duplicate work

Challenges With The Prior Census

Report Process

A more accurate and timely census report would support daily capacity

planning and execution

Census Notification Process

• Deliver an ‘At a Glance’ view of the entire house

• Implement tools to reduce PACU overnight volume

‒ Proactively anticipate capacity volume

‒ Develop solutions to accommodate future admissions

• Implement tools to reduce PACU bed turnaround

‒ Bed assignment & availability

• Automate daily projected census reporting

• Develop a solution better suited to scale and train across skill sets

Goals & Objectives For Improvement

Operational

owners, vendor,

and IT met to

discuss current

state workflow

and data

collection

• Pulled in front-end users

• Talked with end-users about data they provided

and how determined

• Scrutinized each data point to understand which

we could automate

Vendor proposed

solutions and

guided IT in

initial build

• Proposed solutions were reviewed

• Completed build for initial dashboard

Circulated initial

build with

stakeholders for

buy-in

• Stakeholder review draft

dashboard

• Visited each stakeholder

individually to understand unique

concerns

• Revised build based on

stakeholder feedback

Monitored data

via parallel

process

Refined build

and ceased

parallel process

monitoring

Design Methodology

Plan

Check

Act

PDCA

• Allowed dashboard to calculate

data

• Compared to results of prior

process

• Shared variance data with

stakeholders

• Refined build based upon

feedback

Validation Method

Parallel process review

• Daily review of variance

• Investigate with various stakeholders

• Modify variables and monitor outcomes

Technology Leveraged: HSS Capacity

Management Dashboard

Data Collection

Implementation: Staff Training

Staff Instructions

Enter data from the ADT Capacity

Management Dashboard into the orange

portions of the excel template above

People Trained 5 19

Work Effort/Census

Notification

45 min - 1 hr 4-5 min

Value Derived

2016 2018

• 96% Reduction in OR cases put on hold due to PACU bed

shortages (2015 vs 2018)

o Decreased overtime hours associated with OR holds

o Increased OR utilization

• Improvements resulted in increased flexibility of PAS staff

• Increased capacity allowed PAS leadership to establish a

shift without adding FTEs

Bed Assignment & PACU Turnover

(Calculated in Minutes)

Outcomes

108

100

120

140

160

2017 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4

Avg RTP to Assigned Avg Assigned to Bed Ready Avg Bed Ready to Occupied

Transfer out of the PACU depends on inpatient capacity

Part II: Clinical Pathway

Management

Kelli Nelson

Director, Clinical Applications

At HSS, Clinical Pathways Are

Procedure Specific Post Op Order Sets

That Coordinate And Standardize Care

 Pathways Overview

 Time based goals/milestones for

interdisciplinary care of a defined

patient group

– Procedures: Primary Hip, Primary Knee, etc.

– Disease states: Diabetes, Kidney, CVD, etc.

 Created to reduce variation in care and

increase value for similar patient groups

 Pathways at HSS

 EMR order-sets: post-op through discharge

 Documented by clinical teams and reviewed in

rounds

 Inpatient pathways cover more than 80% of

HSS inpatients

 Several ambulatory pathways recently

developed

Pathway performance is measured as “Pathway LOS Adherence”

Pathway LOS Adherence Is When A

Patient Discharges By Their Pathway

Length Of Stay Goal

Adhered Did Not Adhere

Pathway

LOS Goal

Surgery

Discharge

Surgery

At HSS, there is no margin of error in LOS Adherence

In 2016, Overall Pathway LOS

Adherence Stabilized At ~40%

For every 10 patients, 4 adhered to their pathway

Pathway LOS Adherence By Month, 2016

Average = 40%

Feb 16 Mar 16 Apr 16 May 16 Jun 16 Jul 16 Aug 16 Sep 16 Oct 16 Nov 16 Dec 16

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

If All HSS Patients Adhered To

Pathways, HSS Would Gain More Than

300K Bed Hours Per Year

Addressing root causes of “off pathway” pts. will improve resource use

Off Pathway On Pathway

Pts Per

Year

X hours

~307.5K Bed

Hrs/Year

(~35 beds)

Inpatient Average

Length Of Stay

Off Pathway

Patient Count

Total Bed

Hours (Capacity)

To Improve Pathway Adherence, An

Interdisciplinary Project Team Was

Chartered

Problem

Statement

HSS

patients are not always discharged within expected length of stay as determined by clinical pathways

Scope/Activities

& Deliverables



Develop/refine reporting and measurement



Determine top 5 contributors to adherence and isolate clinical vs. non clinical (operational) causes



Recommend new pathways for development and pathways changes to achieve better adherence (e.g.,

LOS Targets)



Establish action plans and implement operational changes (e.g., “Pathway Clock” workflow design)

Metrics

# Description Baseline Target Standard

ALOS

Pathway Adherence

40%

Pathways Discharge Delay (

Avg)

ID Top 5 Causes Of

Noncompliance

Benefits

Proactive management of patient care

Clinically appropriate length of stay

Decreased costs for HSS and patient-family

Staff satisfaction with plan of care

documentation

Patient satisfaction and quality of care

Team

Members

Leadership Team Ad Hoc

•

Sponsor(s)

•

Ops. Owner(s)

•

Op. Ex.

•

Case Management

•

Nursing

•

Nutrition

•

Physician Assistant

•

Physician

•

Pharmacy

•

Physical Therapy

•

Information Technology

•

Value Management

•

Informatics

•

Patient Care

Directors

•

Physicians

The Project Team Followed A Design

Thinking Approach

Discovery

“What Are We

Solving?”

Ideate

“How Could We

Do That?”

Prototype

“What Does It

Look Like?”

Test

“Does it ‘Mostly’

Work?”

T - 8 Weeks

• Identify hypotheses

• Gather data

• Observe

• Validate data

• Analyze data

• Review preliminary

findings with

stakeholders

• Revise analysis

• Make “opportunity”

recommendations

• Brainstorm “how” to

move from concept to

design

• Propose and discuss

ideas

• Identify and sort by

selection criteria

• Agree to full solution

set (i.e., impact

multiple

roles/processes and

environments)

• Quickly build

solutions (e.g., a

storyboard, or a new

process flow)

• Trial solutions (e.g.,

role-play)

• Ask “why”

• Deliberately plan

your test (scenarios &

experience questions)

• Ask users to try

• Solicit feedback (Ask

“why”)

• Build feedback into

design and revise the

prototype (PDCA)

• Plan for launch

• Performance gap is

measured

• Opportunity

(“Challenge”) is clear

• Common underlying

issues are agreed

• Multiple ideas

considered

• Best solutions

identified

• Ideas checked for

flaws

• Communication

started

• Soft failures / Redo

• Prototype refined

• User approval

• User buy-in

• Idea is ready for

implementation

• Plan to implement

Activities

Outcomes

In this approach, the discovery phase starts with data analysis

Kickoff

T + 2 Weeks

T + 4-8 Weeks

The Team’s Review Of Data Identified

Distinct Groups Of Patients That Do Not

Adhere To Pathways

The hour of surgery and complexity are primary drivers of adherence

• Group A:

Patients Exit OR

Earlier Than On

Path Patients

• Group B:

Patients Are

Moderately

Complex

• Group C:

Patients Are

Significantly

More Complex

• Same pattern

exists across all

pathways

Among Patients Who Go Off Path, ~72% Are Off By ≤30 Hours

3 Distinct Groups: (A) 0-12 Hrs Off Path, (B) 18-30 Hrs Off Path, (C) All Others

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

100

200

300

400

500

600

103

109

115

121

127

133

139

145

151

157

163

169

175

181

187

193

199

Volume

Hours

• Group A Contains ~40%

Of Off Path Patients

• Group B Contains ~32%

Of Off Path Patients

• Moving All Group A

Patients On Path Would

Result In ~66%

Adherence Overall

• Moving Group B On Path

Would Result In ~62%

Adherence (Exclusive Of

Group A)

• Moving Both A And B

Together On Path Would

Result In 85% Adherence

Rate Overall

• Distributions Are Similar

For Each Pathway And

For Each Specialty

Key Insights

Group A

Group Avg. Hrs

Off Path

% of

Pts

A 3.1 40%

B 23.8 32%

C 55.5 28%

Group C

Group B

Despite Patient Types, One Procedure

Specific Pathway Was Available For

Patients, Leading To Bottlenecks At

Discharge

Pathways were not built for patient differences and were unreliable

frameworks for planning/execution

Surgeon Performs

Surgery

First Assist

Places The

Pathway Order

Surgery Recovery

Interdisciplinary

Rounds (2x/Day)

Team States DC

Date And What Else

Patient Needs To DC

Discharge

Discharge Time

Determined On

DC Date

Key Problems Significance

Pathways “one

size fits all”

•

Few patients discharge on pathway - progress appeared random

•

Priority patients could not be easily identified in work queues (e.g.,

by medical complexity, discharge targets)

DC Date/time

targets

unspecified

•

Discharge times determined on day of discharge

•

Tasks to prepare for discharge could not be prioritized/coordinated

•

Discharge bottlenecks and patient, family, and staff complaints

Today, Pathways Have Multiple Levels

And Discharges Are Scheduled,

Allowing Teams To Prioritize And

Cascade Work

A shared, realistic LOS target provides the foundation for coordination &

more effective care delivery

8/10/15; 1012

8/12/15; 0806

8/10/15; 1012

1 – Short LOS

2 – Standard

3 – Long LOS

X Hours

Y Hours

Z Hours

Perioperative

Team Identifies

Complexity

First Assist Places

Specific Pathway

Order: Level 1-3

Key

Insights

• Expected DC time driven by pathway order (placed by first assist)

• Pathway LOS is “individualized” for patient needs (low to high complexity)

• Teams queue & organize workflows by the exp. Discharge time

• Patients/families prepared for discharge, allowing them to meet/beat goal

Surgery Recovery

Interdisciplinary

Rounds (2x/Day)

Case Mgr. Provides DC

Target, Team Aligns Care Plan

& Prioritizes Work

Discharge

Discharge By The

Hour Targeted

Several EMR Changes Were Required

To Operationalize The New Process,

Starting With The Pre-Op Clearance

Note

Key

Insights

1. Pre-op the internist documents a pathway level suggestion

2. Post op, the first assist places a final pathway order

3. Once inpatient, the case manager reviews and documents an

expected discharge date/time

Pre Op Clearance Note

Expected Discharge Date/Time

Pathway Order Selection

Additional Changes Included

Visualizing The Discharge Goal To Align

Interdisciplinary Work And Patient

Expectations

Key

Insights

1. Patient lists with date/time of discharge for staff and patients

2. IPOC panel with expected discharge and pathway details support

interdisciplinary rounds

3. In-room TV display of scheduled discharges

TV Display

Electronic White Board

IPOC Panel

In Addition, An Interdisciplinary

Rounds Standard Was Created To Help

Coordinate Care Along Pathways

Question

Responsible

Words That Work

dentify

Who is the patient?

Why are they here?

“10

-01, Mrs. Jones, patient of Dr. Haas, left knee. Post-

op day 1 and wants to leave tomorrow.”

Disposition

What is the disposition and

expected DC date/time?

Case Mgr.

“The preop note says she is going home. Currently

expected to go home with services on Friday at 10 am.”

bstacles

Are they progressing

toward their disposition?

What are the remaining

barriers?

Pharm.D.

Case Mgr.

RN: “

No issues overnight.”

: “She had drainage but now wound is healing nicely.”

: “She’s progressing well, ambulated 50x2 and is

listed for PT today at 11 am and 2 pm.”

RD:

“Her diet can be advanced to Regular.”

Case

Mgr: “Home care is arranged.”

hange

Is it possible to discharge

the patient earlier/later?

Should the disposition be

changed?

PCD

“She’s doing well. Is there an opportunity to move her

to an earlier discharge? What’s the best disposition we

could achieve?”

IF BARRIERS

: What can we

do to remove the issue or

improve the disposition?

Who is gong to take action?

PCD

“What needs to be done to get the patient back on

pathway? Do you need help?”

“[PT],

will you assign them a morning mobility session?”

hare

DC Plan or Disposition

Changes

: Who will tell the

patient?

PCD

“Since this is a big change to their plan and they are

medically ready, can [PA/MD/RN] please make sure that

Mrs. Jones’ & her family are aware?”

HSS Rounding Standard

All rounds include a

specific focus on

patient’s discharge goal

Phlebotomy Workflows Were Also

Aligned To Pathways Through An

Updated Worklist

Workflow Changes

• Phlebotomists draw labs in order of

the expected discharge

• Work queues now display patients

in order of expected discharge

• Display shows patients with

expected discharge within next 6

hours

Impact

• Small batches improve lab

turnaround times

• Ensures test results are available

by start of rounds

• Improves decision making and

likelihood of meeting discharge

time

Updated WorklistPrevious Worklist

Patients

expected to

discharge

within 6 hours

All patients on

phlebotomist

worklist

A Performance Dashboard Now

Provides Daily Feedback To Each

Interdisciplinary Team

Data removed

Results

Since Go-Live, Pathway ALOS Has

Declined By ~6.5 Hours And Is Now

Nearly Equal To The Expected LOS

Delivering the expected ALOS allows for better planning

Pathway ALOS

Expected Pathway ALOS

ALOS (Hours)

60.4

Pathway ALOS By Month, 2016 – 2018 YTD

1, 2, 3

Avg = 68

Pathway Levels

Go-Live

Avg = 71

-6.5 Hrs

Avg = 61.5

The ALOS For Complex Pathway

Patients Decreased ~9 Hours

ALOS (Hours)

Avg = 93

Pathway Levels

Go-Live

Gaps in care are closing and coordination of care is better, even for most

complex of patients

Complex Patient ALOS By Month, 2016 – 2018 YTD

1, 2

Avg = 84

-9 Hrs

Most Of The ALOS Change Occurred

Within The IP to Clear Rehab Phase

LOS (Hours)

ALOS By Phase of Encounter Before & After Pathway LOS Adherence Project

All Pathways

Primary Hip and Knee Pathways

PACU

IP to Clear

Clear to DC Order

Discharge

Hip

Knee

Before After

After

Before

LOS (Hours)

Aligning Phlebotomy To The Expected

Discharge Date/Time Increased The

Rate Of Labs Resulted By Rounds

Timely labs allow clinical teams to make decisions regarding discharge

and keep patients on pathway

Percent of Labs Resulted By Start Of Morning Rounds

Hematology

Chemistry

Worklist

Change

Jul 17 Aug 17 Sep 17 Oct 17 Nov 17 Dec 17 Jan 18 Feb 18 Mar 18 Apr 18 May 18 Jun 18 Jul 18

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

+20%

+19%

Overall Pathway LOS Adherence

Increased By 13%

Pathway LOS Adherence By Month, 2016 - 2017

LOS

Adherence

(%)

53%

+13%

Aug – Dec 2017 saw 5 consecutive months of record LOS adherence

Main

Project

Go-Live

Baseline Avg = 40%

Avg = 45%

Greater Pathway Adherence Has

Created Capacity For Additional

Surgical Cases

Greater Adherence

Inpatient Capacity

Created

+13% Adherence

Bed Capacity

600 – 1200

Surgical Cases

Potential For

Surgical Volume

• HSS developed and hardwired a

system to manage each patient by

their pathway

– Pathway segmentation

– Discharge scheduling with LOS goals

– Supporting department work queues

• Overall Results:

– +13% net pathway LOS adherence

• Represents a 33% improvement

• 5 consecutive months of record rates

– 10% ALOS decrease

• 6.5 hour pathway LOS decrease

– Additional capacity for 600 - 1200

surgical cases

Recap: HSS Has Created A Pathway

Management System

Despite improvements, large opportunities exist for 2018 and beyond

Next Steps

Building On Past Work, HSS Pathways

Will Become More Personalized

Past Present Future

One pathway per

procedure

Multiple pathways per

Procedure

Personalized

pathways per Patient

Pathways

Unlimited

Pathways

Pathway Count

Personalized pathways will require more clinical coordination, flexible

operations, and rapid development cycles

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Soon, Pathway Development Will Be

Driven By A Steering Committee

On-Going Support

• Review data

• Review high risk

patient cases

• Project

management

Prioritization

• Identify highest

priority updates

• Ensure alignment

to org. Priorities

• Production Sched.

Development

• Dev. cycles

• Build new

pathways

• Adjust existing

pathways

• Educate staff

Pathways

Steering

ProcessStructure

Spine

Team

Knee

Team

Hip

Team

Shoulder

Team

Foot

Team

Peds

Team

Other

Team

Trauma

Team

Output

Impact

Clinical

Effectiveness

Distinct

Continuous

Improvement

Strategic

Alignment

Consistent

Communication

Team Based

• Gather prevailing hypotheses and use data to A) separate myth from fact and

B) identify focus for change

• Use design thinking with a trusted interdisciplinary team to create

engagement and find ideal solutions

• Rank your solutions against the original problem (data)

• Be creative with your EMR: The perfect solution may not be feasible but a

“better” state is always possible

• Communication never ends: Ensure all stakeholders have the opportunity to

evaluate the team’s solutions before moving forward

• Consider what might happen if you are too successful (e.g., budget impact)

• Systemic alignment occurs when you establish shared goals that can be

operationalized within workflows

Lessons Learned

Appendix 1: Inpatient Pathway

Adherence 2016 - 2018

Pathway LOS Adherence By Month, 2016 - 2018

LOS

Adherence

(%)